#comic book rant

[internetgiraffekid1673]

Bring Back the Bombshells Batgirls!

In helping a friend of mine map out who all has been Batgirl across various DC continuities, I remembered a little jaunt to TVtropes where it mentioned that in a charming little number called Bombshells, the batgirl identity is shared by a baseball team.

This reminded me to actually go READ Bombshells, and oh. My. GOSH. It is the BEST FUCKING THING EVER!

What is Bombshells?

Basically, almost every male superhero got yeeted from the story or relegated to side character/civilian, while every female superhero takes the spotlight and gets to KICK SOME NAZI ASS (it's set during world war 2). Plenty of people get spotlight, but I'm gonna argue that the MAIN characters are probably Kate Kane's batwoman, Diana of Themyscira's Wonder Woman, Mera's Aquawoman (she hates that name, lol), Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, Zatanna, and Kara Starikov's Supergirl. All the storylines tend to revolve around them.

Oh, also it's super gay. Like, every single character is a lesbian or bi, there's tons of ladies kissing and dating and having implied sex, and at least one character---one of the batgirls actually---is trans.

In summary, go read bombshells it's really good, but today I'm here to specifically talk about:

The Batgirls (and boys)

"One for the ribbon, two for the pearls! Three for the crimefighting---

So first off, Bombshells is an elseworld, so it can do whatever the fuck it wants with backstories and shit.

Subsequently; this version of Kate Kane is a major league baseball player, and her Batwoman costume is literally just a pallet swap of her baseball costume (plenty of people figure out her "secret" identity because of this, but she's not super concerned about it). She uses an actual bat as her main weapon as Batwoman, and it kicks ass. More fanfic writers, and hell, comics writers need to hand the Batfamily some baseball bats, because it gives us scenes like this:

Or this:

(Yes her bat has a gun, it's supplied by Amanda Waller through goverment money, don't question it. Her baseballs are also explosives).

Oh, and also this:

Anyway, point is, Batwoman has a bat and it's great. But this means when Gotham's bat-weilding protector gets drafted into the Bombshells to go fight Nazi's, some new faces have to pick up the slack in Gotham.

And so:

Inspired by their vigilante/baseball hero, Harper Row, Kathy Duquesne, and Nell Little pick up some bats of their own and start busting up crime! The three of them are mechanics, that old car is their batmobile, and they're the best of friends!

Of this original trio, Kathy is "the brass" or the leader, and she remains nominally in charge through the whole thing. Nell is "the brawn" and while every batgirl is good in a fight, Nell is a bit of a demolition specialist. Finally you have Harper, "the brain" who invents their gadgets, works on their batmobile, and also jokes that she's the mascot, as this whole thing was her idea.

They don't stay a trio for very long though! They're quickly joined by "the beauty" Alysia Yeoh, an old friend of Kathy's, in an effort to break Cullen Row out of a prison-like orphanage (she's the t-girl btw):

You may notice another girl crouched in the corner up there too! That's Bette Kane, Kate's niece and the rightful owner of Kane Industries who will forcibly take it over, clean it up, and use it for good on her 18th birthday in like a week!

In the meantime though, she heard about the batgirls and decided she wanted in! She crashes their jailbreak and helps them wreck shop! She mostly shares the "brass" role with Kathy---a leader in her own right.

Anyway, their now quintet quickly finds the awful headmistress of the Pinkney orphanage berating one Tim Drake, who still has a living dad somewhere, but was snatched up by a dirty cop because this whole city runs on Newsies rules (not even kidding, I'll get there in a sec). Turns out Tim and Alysia are old best friends. Anyway, Tim fills them in on the sitch: the headmisstress has been using the orphans as slave labor to build war robots for the nazis.

The batgirls (now including Tim!), bust up the basement and the robots, free all the orphanage kids, including Cullen, toss the awful headmistress and the dirty cop helping her to one Detectice Maggie Sawyer---Kate's wife---and the day is saved!

In the subsequent week, Bette takes over Kane Industries, starts funneling funds into housing for immigrants and refugees and relief and aid and all that good stuff, and also recruits the final batgirl of the team: Felicity Smoak (the chick in braids)! Thus we have a full team!

Who's who in the alt text

I'm only halfway through Bombshells, but the batgirls and their adventures are a recurring plot thread, since protecting Gotham is entirely up to them while Kate is away. They gain lots of other allies and enemies (including one hispanic immigrant Lois Lane who does straight up help them pull a newsies and make their own newspaper with the real news in it at one point), and their sections are probably one of my favorite parts about the comic. It just feels so sweet and high school, while still feeling Batman-esque/Gotham-typical.

Why You Should Care:

Now. I may only be halfway through Bombshells, but I am in LOVE. With the story and the characterizations and everything!!! And the batgirls are a personal fave of mine cuz I'm a sucker for found family and teens fighting crime and bat-weilding superheroes!

But my point is: for all that fanfic loves these tropes too, there is NO fanfiction for them (or at least not on ao3). There's practically nothing for the Bombshells continuity PERIOD, which is a shame, but also to be expected for an elseworld.

But that's why I'm here and telling you about it!

You guys! This is fanfiction! We love flinging the batfamily through alternate universes and making lots of different characters take on the familiar Batgirl and Robin roles!

Why not bring forth the Bombshells Batgirls?

If you're writing your own elseworld, I suggest you nab this adorable team, or something like it! If you're writing an alt universe crossover, feature these guys!

They are the Batfamily found family you want! They CALL THEMSELVES a Bat-family! They all move in together! They loooooovvveee each other! And, as is the nature of the Batgirl mantle, they do what they do largely as independent operatives without adult supervision!

I would really love to see these guys yeeted into an alternate universe and have to cope with just HOW different their continuity is. Not only will they inevitably be flung way into the future, since they're around in the 40s, but in most continuities they're completely unconnected from each other and are absolutely not a team of bat-weilding crime fighters! It would be so baffling for any mainline batgirl and robin to meet a team that is so disconnected from them and so unconditionally supportive of each other and so Badass Adorable!

In Summary:

I may have lost the plot a little with this, but my points are:

Bombshells is really good and you should all go read it

Bombshells has a team of adorable bat-weilding batgirls that has all the found family crime fighting tropes you could want without the bad blood of the mainline batfam

More people should write fanfiction for Bombshells

The Bombshells!Batgirls in particular I think are a great place to start with that. Nab the premise of a baseball team being crime fighters, or Gotham being protected by a group of scrappy children whenever the big bad vigilantes are away, or give these colorful kids their Bombshells!backstories.

Also use the Bombshells universe in particular when you're flinging bats across the multiverse. Yeet these babies into a mainline comics verse and let the juxtaposition and chaos run WILD! There's a million and one of these fics for the Young Justice cartoon, I know ya'll can do it for Bombshells

Also. Take every opportunity to give your Batfamily, and your Batgirls in particular, an actual bat. It'll be so much fun, I promise

Anyway, I'll probably be back with another Bombshells rant later, PEACE!

[maxtalkscomics]

I majorly dislike this, despite yes him and his sister finally spending time together it's so artificial, this is the same Jai that was scared for him and sister so badly he started to mutate, again I have to say this again, his story arc should have been about his self doubt about himself and becoming a hero which his first issue in this series showed until they decided to drop the bombshell he didn't want to be a hero, and thus give him weird powers that don't fit his character and alienate himself from the flash fam even more, The entire character arc he went through here felt artificial, it was like Spurrier bascailly threw away anything that the Adams and Waid 's run showed us Jai, he's the opposite of Irey and he's different from his family..but he's still apart of the family, his powers were only a tiny bit different..it's pretty clear what could have been if this was never introduced but Spurrier doesn't know how to write kids...and thus we lost anything that could have been interesting or even relatable as the only reason I fell in love with Jai is because I felt so different from my family until I realized I'm only a tiny bit different..not insanely different like Spurriers run showed us Jai now is

Now let's imagine if things Actually followed the storylines started by the previous runs and I know I'm going to sound a broken record but just hear me out

Jai's story should have been following the path from the Adams and Waid runs, he wants to become a hero but a hero just like his father just like his dad.. because his dad is his hero..this is stated in flash 779 when Jai says it himself

He wants to be like his father, to be like his hero..but this is where it could be interesting regrading the fact that Wally how he was as a hero and his relationship with his father

Wally doesn't want that,he doesn't want his kids to follow the path to being a hero he did...his relationship with his dad was tough...sure he hides it from his kids but he wants his kids to have a better childhood than he did

The character arc should have been for Jai on what he will do on his path of becoming a hero, what obstacles he will face...but even then with all those obstacles he could always run home..he could always go back to the safe place...cause what if it matters if he has super strength and not speed or that he's not as extroverted as the other flashes, HES A WEST! HES JAI WEST! nothing will change that! And just giving him these new powers made what could have been a simple but incredibly heartfelt and deep story..into something convulted and with so much reaches it's clear Spurrier didn't do his research on Jai or his relationship with anyone in the flash family

Again Jai doesn't resent Wally he logically would resent Jesse...why does he need to be alienated? Why does he need to have these unnatural powers? Because he acts different? Because he's just slightly different? That's a horrible message! Just because you are a slightly different from your family doesn't mean you are completely different..but you still are family

I know I said really upset at this but it's because I am, again what could have been such a good deep character arc about a father not wanting his kid to follow his footsteps meanwhile his kid wants too would have been simple yeah! But it would have worked..but Spurrier doesn't know how to write kids...my final rating for this run is really a low 3/10 it ruined jai's character to the point I don't see myself really reading him again until this is fixed...cause this run was just a mess

Also it's so clear how no one else cared because I see no one else talking about this minus for me and a few others, to every writer and to DC and even to the wider fandom Jai doesn't matter and that honestly makes me really sad, because again one last time, Jai could have been such a interesting character but it just ended up as convulted and out of character and disrespectful to the runs that came before

[gregxb]

Paul Is Terrible… But the Reaction Says a Lot More

I’m going to say this up front so nobody tries to “well actually” me into the ground. I have not been reading current Spider-Man. I fell off a while ago. So everything I know about this whole Paul situation is secondhand, absorbed through osmosis because it has gotten so loud that you can’t avoid it if you’re even adjacent to Spider-Man fandom.

I’m a hardcore Spider-Man fan. I love Peter Parker. I love Mary Jane Watson. I love Peter and MJ together. I hated One More Day when it happened and I still hate it now. That part hasn’t changed.

What has changed is how I look at some of the reaction to this Paul guy.

For those of you who somehow missed it, Paul shows up in the recent Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 6 (Zeb Wells run) and, for all intents and purposes, he is the guy MJ is with after she and Peter are no longer together. There are alternate dimension shenanigans, time displacement, kids, the whole thing. Again, I have not read it, so I am not here to litigate the execution of the story.

What I am here to talk about is the reaction.

Because the reaction is not normal.

And I don’t mean people being upset. Fans get upset all the time. I was upset about One More Day. That’s part of being invested in a story. What I mean is the specific kind of anger, the tone, the way Paul has been turned into this almost mythic symbol of betrayal.

For a long time, I rejected the idea that some Spider-Man fans project themselves onto Peter and view MJ as some kind of surrogate girlfriend. I thought that was dismissive. I thought it was people trying to psychoanalyze fans instead of engaging with the actual criticism.

I don’t reject it anymore.

Because with Paul, it is impossible not to see.

There is a segment of the fandom that is not reacting like readers who dislike a story choice. They are reacting like they got dumped.

Paul is not just “a poorly written character” or “a contrived plot device” to them. Paul is that guy. The guy the girl chose instead of you. The guy who shows up after you thought you had something real and suddenly you’re on the outside looking in.

And here’s the thing. That feeling is real. A lot of people have lived that. Especially the kind of dorky, socially awkward guys that Spider-Man has historically resonated with. Peter Parker was the ultimate “that could be me” character. Smart, awkward, overlooked, gets the girl anyway. That fantasy has been baked into the character for decades.

So when you introduce Paul, you are not just introducing a new love interest for MJ. You are breaking that fantasy in a very direct way.

Now, does that mean all criticism of the storyline is invalid. No. Not even a little.

From everything I have gathered, there are plenty of legitimate storytelling complaints. Skipping over the breakup. Dropping readers into the middle of a status quo without context. Using alternate dimension time shenanigans to force a separation. Repeating the same editorial mandate we saw with One More Day where Peter and MJ cannot be allowed to move forward.

Those are real issues.

But they are not what is driving the intensity of this reaction.

The intensity comes from something more personal. Something a lot less comfortable to admit.

It is the projection.

It is seeing Peter as yourself, MJ as the girl you wanted, and Paul as the guy she chose instead.

Once you see it through that lens, the scale of the backlash makes a lot more sense. It stops being just about comics and starts being about people working through their own baggage in public.

And to be clear, recognizing that does not change how I feel about Peter and MJ. I still think they belong together. I still think breaking them up over and over again is creatively bankrupt. I still think One More Day did long-term damage to the character that Marvel has never really recovered from.

But it does change how I look at the discourse.

Because some of this is not about Spider-Man at all.

[monsieuroverlord]

UGGHH I still have thoughts about the maybe Auraki break-up.

I'll put my full rant below

(I still refuse to confirm for sure, because Aki does have a tendency to be a lil dramatic sometimes lol, and I didn't see Aurora agreeing to this break-up. As I said in my main issue summary, it could just be a bit of flavor to add to the drama and then they'll start fresh for the new era.)

I think my biggest vexation is that while their relationship didn't start in the best way (nor on the best book in general), I do still wholeheartedly believe that it's a case of unrealized potential. And that's mostly why I'm so worked up about it.

It's a case of being so close! Yet so far. Literally for years at this point, through the entire course of their relationship. I will also concede that Percy did give us some of the best moments between them and regarding their relationship, so I must commend him for that.

For context: I have sort of a chaotic reading list of comic books. I had grown up reading Wolverine (Logan, the OG), then got into X-Men in general -> Alpha Flight (roughly around my teen years, starting 13/14-ish) -> X-23-era Laura Kinney -> Sgt. Fury & his Howling Commandos (bit of a detour lmao) -> X-Men & All-New Wolverine Laura Kinney -> Akihiro + now a rotating selection of whatever piques my interest. Throw in some indies scattered here and there.

My point here is that I had gotten to know Aurora first, before Akihiro. So I like to think that I know her character pretty well. I mean, I can't claim that I've read and thoroughly analyzed every appearance ever, but you know, I don't think I'm unfamiliar.

And as far as characters go, i do think personality-wise, Auraki does have a lot of easily imaginable appeal and flair.

Like I see the vision!

They could do very well together! They both had really fucked up childhoods -- Aki being conditioned as a living attack dog for most of his life and Aurora in an abusive Catholic Boarding school, very much akin to those fucking nightmare "Indian Residential Schools," which to this day, they're still finding unmarked graves of indigenous children (I can't recall if they've outright said that's what Madama Dupont's was, but I'm pretty sure it was heavily implied), survivors of SA -- Aurora explicitly stated and Aki being strongly implied, identity issues in very different ways, and both suffer major cases of "they've been done dirty by the writers" at one point or another in their respective individual histories! They just need one or three or ten good story arcs!

Individually, as separate characters, they have chemistry, and I would've really liked to see that play out on panel.

Ah, well, I just needed to get this off my chest and now I need to just stew in my feelings for a bit.

I hope that whatever happens, we still get interesting stories for both of them. That Akihiro still gets to keep his friends, Aurora gets a book, and that both of them have meaningful relationships in the future (either with each other or other people). We still got the last issue to see how it concludes.

And then Akihiro joining Spirits of Violence, plus also going to be part of Laura Kinney: Sabretooth.

[maxtalkscomics]

I really do want to talk about the new teen titans series and some of my concerns about it and my first impressions (spoiler alert they are not good) but I really don't want too and can't

Anytime I sit down and begin to write about them I just become exhausted cause Im getting tired of seeing this run that not only is missing the entire point of manga and Japanese storytelling in general with its whole marketing which in my belief is not respectful at all especially since it's being used to market something along with it acting like it's the first of its kind when writers like Scott Snyder, John Ostrander and Mike grell and many more have gone on record to say that manga inspired them without having to make a giant spectacle with them

Along with that I'm just really tired from seeing the treatment of the original 4th gen, the trio before new 52 was simple, Lian and the west twins, Damian could be interchangeable with Jai but that was the status quo and could have been the status quo...but it didn't and why is that? DC keeps introducing new characters that take spotlight away from said characters all the while hurting what was already established, to judy Garrick and fair play watering down and lessing the impact of relationships characters like Jay Garrick and Mr terrific made

To even the new OCS that will be in the teen titans book taking the space of what could have been the trio and even letting Lian meet her friends again after so long and along with that even if both of the twins can't show up, at least use Jai, use Jai and give him the spotlight to share with the others, like how a team book is supposed to be

Superman legit said Kindness is the new punk rock, and Jai embodies that, he embodies kindness and doing the right thing, he's so simple but yet that doesn't mean he's a bad character yet every writer keeps just trying to deconstruct him and what we got instead for this Books themes and aesthetic is very corporate very safe punk

Now am I rushing my opinions here? Probably yeah, but DC has been flopping so long with the youngest generation I have full right to be

Dc next level is supposed to be giving characters that were obscure and giving them the lime light again, instead we're getting introduced to new characters who I can barely care for, I don't even hate them I just question on why they are even there and Jason too, why couldn't grant have been the overseer, he's connected to Lian and Lian would probably want him to be watching over them and plus make up for putting him on the freedom fighters

Maybe Lian goes to grant and asks for him to overseer them cause while she knows her father would be a better pick, she still wants some independence and if you really want to keep the amount of Teammates the same, bring back Colin

I could go deeper and deeper but really at the end of the day, next level just started and I'm already worried about it, am I probably jumping to conclusions and overreacting and the book will be decent? Probably! But then again is decent really that good after something like teen titans DC rebirth and teen titans new 52, plus it's being written by Kyle higgens who I'm sorry I can't trust anymore with any character after Nightwing the new order

But still what I'm getting at is, the 4th gen deserve to shine like they were supposed to, not just focus on Lian 24/7 cause she's only one part of a bigger generation that's bascailly being skipped over and forgotten for no reason whatsoever other than "oh look at these cool characters"

And honestly after something like the spurrier run I just want this generation to be treated with actual respect and not just butchered to seem really smart, anyway that's all I can stomach to say, am I still going to check out the book? Yeah I guess so but I don't have any high hopes for it

[maxtalkscomics]

I always feel like people miss the point of Irey being impulse and what it means for Bart and the character development he could have had

First I see people say impulse was made for Bart and while that is true it also represents some of his worst aspects as a person when he was young, he was reckless, he got himself into danger, his high intelligence made him think Everything was a game thus leading him to look for the next dopamine rush to keep him stimulated, sure he took thing seriously at times but he still had that problem which is why he played video games, Did the most insane stuff ever thought up in the history of humanity

But it also affected how he saw people, This changed when he met Preston, Carol joined Roy's titans group and then later joined young justice(fun fact yeah, barts first superhero team was actually the titans, so funny how he ends up as a teen titan,the circle went around)

But there's also another important aspect of his character people really seem to miss, his idolization of his grandpa

Now why is this important? Because of the fact that Bart saw him as this great guy, this great man, a god amongst man, despite never knowing him he heard all about him...but when he met Barry

He wasn't great at all, hell he wasn't the man Bart idolized and it caused him to short circuit...and even though we may have not seen it much thanks to flash vol 3, issue 11(as shown above) we see that Bart has not been taking it well

There's also why Bart became kid flash, he just grew up as a person, simple as that. He started to think things through more and started taking things more seriously...he was growing and impulse just didn't fit him or the person he was anymore, I know we all love Bart as Impulse but if you just keep him as impulse it undoes so much development writers like Peter david, Geoff johns and even the other writers on impulse did

He lost Max, but he was going to make him proud, he was going to make the man, despite not showing it, he saw as a father proud, he was going to make everyone proud, impulse was gone for now

"but fastest man aliv-" everyone at DC agreed fastest man alive was poorly written, everyone agrees. And even then it doesn't invalidate anything because maybe he decided to take that dream of becoming the flash more slowly then rushing to the finish line

Now where does irey come into all this? Well just look at her, she's energetic, headstrong, and barely takes anything seriously pair that up with her special connection to the speedforce and we basically got someone whos inexperience

And sure she's got her dad but Wally only knows so much, and max isn't really available at all, but you know who was around? Bart! And we see in flash rebirth, irey idolizes Bart

And when we see Jai insult Bart she clearly is hurt about that, it's highly possible that irey sees him the same as Bart saw Barry before he returned

Which is what could have made Bart being her mentor, her Max, so interesting cause not only is he learning more about himself and deciding what kind of hero he wants to be

Now he has to babysit a child who idolizes him, teach her what max taught her, all the ropes and even more importantly teach her that he isn't perfect at all and that he has flaws too but that she can still trust him

The flash family has always been about legacy, no name belongs to one Person(minus the quick name but they are a whole can of worms) Hell during the time of flash rebirth was bad THREE FLASHES running around , so making impulse a legacy would be the right thing to do, especially since Bart grew out of that phase and now he has to teach the next generation

If only Geoff johns really was allowed continued and sterling gates was allowed to write his kid flash series we would have imo have one of the most compelling and Interesting But so heartfelt bart story

Also it's better than him becoming a teen dad to thad's kid NO I WON'T ELABORATE I WROTE THIS AT 9 PM IM GOING TO REST NOW BYEEEEEEEEEE

[maxtalkscomics]

I hate the mentality the comic book community (and I see this more often with DC if anything though) is that "well even if you don't like it, you still got to buy it cause it's all we got" okay sure YOU can still buy it if you enjoy it, me? I shouldn't feel obligated to waste money on something that I won't even touch just because it's "all we got" if anything it just tells DC to keep pumping out mediocre bad stories for said character you want to see more of. Why are you forcing others to buy it and pull it even though they hate it by using the excuse "it's all we got" yeah it's all we got for nowadays but that doesn't mean that better more actual Good stories that the people who hated the new book would actually enjoy

If I'm paying 4-5 dollars an issue I'm not going to waste money just because it's "all we got", if anything I think not buying it actually sends a clearer message that we want better story telling and not something so bland it makes oatmeal taste like a perfectly good steak, like again

you can buy it if you enjoy it! More power to you! But don't force other people to buy it just because it's "all we got" people should be allowed not to pull it or buy it if they hate it, and for example take the current Batgirl run and the flash Simon Spurrier run, sure its or was "all we got" but I found or find the story so unfaithful to the character that it's being written for I just can't like it and I remove it from my pull list because I'm not going to waste money on something so, bland or disrespectful to its readers

If you want to keep pulling those runs and if you genuinely enjoy them! Go ahead! But don't force others too if they hate the current book that just drives people away

[evitwithimagination]

Finally read the Judas Contract which I avoided for like decades and honestly no opinions changed here. The conception of Terra's whole character as an antithesis to Kitty Pryde is such bullshit. Like sure I think little sociopath choosing to be irredeemable is a fun character, but that's not what this is. This is just bullshit 80s comicbook misogyny and you know what Deathstroke deserved to have his ass kicked in a not narratively sympathetic manner. (Also why do modern portrayals of his wife make her out to be the cold bitch? Her whole thing here is damage controlling the Deathstroke fallout and loving her surviving son.) This story is only interesting if Terra survives and becomes a proper villain in her own right rather than dying and leaving the Titans with no hard emotionally complicated choices since they can just tell everyone she died a hero and move on (except Gar, who btw eww I was warned about Slade no one warned me about Gar). Appreciation for the cartoon has definitely gone up, because they made her much more sympathetic in order to make her dies a hero ending real, but now I kinda want an interpretation where she is the selfish asshole who thinks they should use their powers for personal gain and even as a young teen she's a serious threat without being 'made' by a man. Let her stand on actual equal footing, going toe to toe with other villains who bite off more than they can chew working with her, rather than being written as a sexualized pawn who can't control her powers and dies because of it. Let girls choose evil without punishing them way worse for it than men gdi.